While a student at Trevecca, Katerine Hernandez Albert (’15) began honing her leadership skills, serving as a peer mentor, president of Trevecca’s FUTURO chapter and director of the University’s chapter of Best Buddies International. After graduation, she served as program coordinator, then program director for YMCA Latino Achievers before moving to Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), a global leader in music rights management. Albert currently serves as a human resources generalist for the Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC).
Helping students to become servant leaders is one of Trevecca’s core values. For Albert, Trevecca was the perfect training ground. “As a student, I developed relationship-building skills, business acumen, communication skills and a faith-centered worldview that has helped me in all endeavors,” she says. “Most of my professional career has been guided by principles of servant leadership, regardless of the role or title I held.”
Recently, Albert talked with us about her approach to leadership. Here’s what she had to say.
Tell us more about the road that led you to human resources and The MLC.
While at Trevecca, I was a part of the FUTURO chapter. FUTURO connected me with BMI when they were first starting their internship program. That was the start of what has now been this great career opportunity. After my summer interning at BMI, I continued to work part-time with the department while finishing my last year of school. After graduating, I worked with the YMCA Latino Achievers (YLA) and remained in contact with the team at BMI and was able to collaborate with them on a few projects involving YLA. I rejoined BMI during a transition time in my life and was able to begin my career in human resources. I am so grateful for my time at BMI and all the wonderful things I was able to learn and the people I worked with. I recently started a new journey and am now the human resources generalist at the Mechanical Licensing Collective (the MLC). I am thrilled to be a part of the MLC team and look forward to this new season with them. Still, this all started with FUTURO at Trevecca [over] lunch conversation with a FUTURO leader about my summer plans for that year. Many other things have led me to where I am now, but I always think back to that day with gratitude.
Do you think your Trevecca experience helped prepare you for leadership?
Most of my professional career has been guided by principles of servant leadership, regardless of the role or title I held. I learned, experienced and practiced servant leadership while at Trevecca and have been able to do so since. As a student, I developed relationship-building skills, business acumen, communication skills and a faith-centered worldview that has helped me in all endeavors. Furthermore, the relationships and professional experiences I built and had as a student have helped me along my journey and helped open doors for me professionally and personally.
What are some skills you think all leaders should develop?
As cliché as it sounds, the ability to build relationships (and build trust in these) is, in my humble opinion, one of the most important skills for good leaders to develop. This skill helps a leader gain support and support change at any capacity. Relationships with others can help open doors, solve issues and help you know who to contact when you do not know something. I think leaders should also be honest, patient, adaptable and reliable.
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